To better understand USC hiring Steve Sarkisian as its new football coach, it’s probably best to consider Sarkisian should be finishing his fourth season in the position.

Had it not been for some timing issues, it would have been Sarkisian, not Lane Kiffin, who replaced Pete Carroll in 2010.

It was Sarkisian who held the role of assistant head coach at USC under Carroll. It was Sarkisian whom the Trojans wanted when Carroll left for the Seattle Seahawks.

But with Sarkisian taking the University of Washington job in 2009, he had misgivings about leaving the Huskies after just one season to return to Los Angeles.

Hence, he stayed at Washington and USC turned to Kiffin.

And that’s how the Trojans ended up in the mess in which they find themselves, the one Sarkisian has been lured from Washington to clean up, with the timing more advantageous for him to assume the job he always coveted. And at the school that always viewed him as the coach-in-waiting behind Carroll.

That doesn’t make USC athletic director Pat Haden’s decision to hire Sarkisian the right one, necessarily.

Or wrong, for that matter.

And it won’t quiet down the somewhat angry USC fans who, like so many others when a new coach gets hired, seem to think its program just hired the next Ty Willingham while turning its back on the next Nick Saban.

But it does make it somewhat ironic given the job should have been Sarkisian’s four years ago and he replaces one of his best friends in Kiffin.

It also renders some of the backlash from USC fans a bit disingenuous, too.

Many of those same ones now howling were pining for Sarkisian in 2010.

What changed?

That he took over a Washington program coming off an 0-12 finish and never orchestrated a season that exceeded eight wins?

That he leaves Washington after five seasons, and his only statement wins were two upsets over USC, a win over Stanford and a bowl victory over Nebraska?

That he isn’t Kevin Sumlin or Chris Petersen or James Franklin?

Or Ed Orgeron, the man he directly replaces?

Or that one of his best friends is Kiffin?

Kiffin and Sarkisian are two different personalities. All it takes is a few minutes with either to understand that.

Fact is, Sarkisian is the same coach USC wanted four years ago. His time in Seattle was less than overwhelming, but it shouldn’t be the precursor we use to predict failure at USC.

If anything, it should be considered the learning ground on which an inexperienced 34-year-old coach grew into an experienced, soon-to-be 40-year-old coach.

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Sarkisian returns to USC well-versed in the responsibility of being the head coach, of pulling a sinking program back up above water and better prepared for the expectations associated with being the face of a big-time football program while working in a Pac-12 conference he’s been involved in for more than a decade.

Only this time he’ll bring to the field the kind of talent available at USC as opposed to Washington.

Big difference.

He also returns to the city he grew up in and a recruiting area he knows and understands intimately.

Only this time when he talks to top high school prospects, it won’t be to play in cold, rainy Seattle,but to stay home and play at USC, the premier program on the West Coast.

Huge difference.

Does that mean he’ll be a rousing success? Only time will tell.

The same goes for his record at Washington, which will have no significance on what he’s capable of doing at USC, where the resources are greater and the talent deeper.

Just as Carroll’s underwhelming NFL run had no bearing on his time at USC or how Jim Mora’s stops prior to UCLA played no role in his turning the Bruins around.

Carroll and Mora were panned too, when hired by USC and UCLA.

That isn’t a reflection on them as much as it is on everyone else. Because just when we think we know how something will unfold, we’re fooled once again.